Marketing Spend: What Would You Do with an Extra $5 Million? [UML]

There’s an old saying in marketing that half of the advertising budget is wasted, we just don’t know which half. Despite the maturation of digital marketing and web analytics, this remains a challenge.

Some of the commentaries about commercials broadcast during a certain Sunday game reminded me of this recently (not as good as previous years). As I reviewed other articles I might include for this week’s Unscripted Marketing links [UML], I couldn’t help but think: what would a B2B do with an extra $5 million in the marketing budget?

And that’s the theme for this week. As always, you’ll find three articles below that I’ve vetted and recommend for your perusal.

1) The Results of a 30 Second Spot Costing $5 Million

Advertising spots for the big football game this year grew to $5,000,000 for a mere 30 seconds of airtime. Certainly, these commercials are unique opportunity – eyeballs notwithstanding – given those aired earn the same interest level from viewers as the game itself. Some people don’t even like football, but watch the game for the community – and the commercials.

“Ad campaigns built around expensive Super Bowl commercial time improved brand buzz and consumers’ propensity to talk about brands, but they don’t appear to have significantly lifted purchase consideration, according to YouGov BrandIndex research.”

The article breaks out the data which, ironically, narrows like a funnel. It shows “statistically significant improvements” in what consumers “have heard” about some brands and what they “have said” about fewer brands. However, there was no movement for “purchase consideration.”

In terms of cost, keep in mind that $5 million is just for air time; brands have to also invest to produce a high-quality commercial. It also merits pointing out, these are early measurements; perhaps the results improve with time. These commercials have created pre- and post-game opporutnities.

2) Marketers Shy in Commitment to Native Ads

The piece cites data from Advertising Perceptions which shows while there have been many marketing experiments, there are also few commitments:

“In 2016, 33% of those surveyed identified themselves as “mainstream adopters” of native advertising, exactly the same level as a year earlier.”

Native ads can work, but within a framework for best results.

First, native ads should be part of integrated marketing program or campaign; one-offs done standalone are usually a waste of money.

Second, aim to nurture rather than make a hard sell; in B2B marketing that means pitching quality content, like reports, white papers and webinars. The hard sell on a native ad is like making a marriage proposal on a first date.

Third, the goal can’t be lead generation, at least not directly. Instead, every time you run a native ad, you should strive to get a little bit of that audience, to join yours. Why? There are more likely to make a purchase – 50% more likely in this example.

3) What are the Top Challenges in B2B Marketing?

Given the obstacles presented in the first two summaries above, then it’s easy to understand the challenges marketing is up against. To that end, “delivering high quality” leads took the top spot on the B2B marketing list of challenges according to research by DemandWave.

Rounding out the top five B2B marketing challenges are (also see chart nearby):

“63% of B2B marketers say organic search drives revenue, tying email at the top spot for the first time.”

And later

“64% of marketers feel they have clear guidelines for what constitutes a sales-qualified lead, up 28% YoY, as 58% of marketers are now responsible for a sales-qualified lead goal, representing a 38% boost from 2016.”

About Sword and the Script Media, LLC

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Sword and the Script Media, LLC is veteran-owned public relations agency immersed in the business-to-business (B2B) marketplace. We focus on building consistent, sustainable, repeatable, and process-driven programs for PR, content marketing and social media. A defining difference comes down to our approach – that marketing ought to have utility. This is because marketing that helps, sells better than marketing that hypes.